From 31 March 2019, Optus will no longer be providing the ‘Voice to Text’ feature.

Voice to Text is a $6.99 per month subscription VoiceMail feature that converts spoken VoiceMail messages into text and then sends them to your mobile handset as an SMS.

This decision reflects changes in the mobile landscape and customer demand.

What do I need to do to be ready for this change?

If you’re currently subscribed to Optus Voice to Text

You can opt to remain subscribed until 31March 2019, after which you will no longer be able to use the Voice to Text service and convert VoiceMail messages into SMS messages. You will only be billed for your subscription up to 31 March 2019.

If you are hearing impaired and would like to cancel your mobile service, please contact us.

If you’re not currently subscribed to Optus Voice to Text

You will no longer be able to purchase and activate this feature after 31 March 2019 on your Postpaid or Prepaid Service.

What is my alternative to Voice to Text?

As an alternative voicemail feature, you can opt to take up Optus Voice to MMS. Voice to MMS sends you a playable audio file of received voicemail straight to your mobile as an MMS. This is provided as a month to month subscription of $4.99 per month.

How do I purchase and activate voice to MMS?

You can purchase and activate Voice to MMS via My Account online.

To Activate via My Account select the following:

My Account

My Services

Manage

Call diversions

Voicemail settings

You can also call 369 (free of charge) from your mobile to activate or receive more information on this service by following the prompts.

If you have any questions about the change, please leave a comment below

Why can't iPhone users activate Apple's Visual Voicemail? I note that both Vodafone and Telstra offer it but as an Optus Business customer I cannot activate it. Really if you are cancelling the Optus Voice to Text at least activate Apple's Visual Voicemail.

Once again Optus shows that it doesnt give a rodents rectum about its customers..2nd time (HomeZone previously) in a few years they have just cancelled a very useful service with no consultation with its users, and offered a laughably-inferior "alterrnative" with very little notification time..See that nearly 10-years of $100/month account of mine optus ? Wave bye-bye to it..Im fed up with your miserable excuse for customer service..

What a totally dumbass decision- it’s a service I use consistently and the alternative isn’t viable as a solution- to not even give a reasonable explanation for discontinuing the service is a further slap in the face - I have to agree with others Optus from my own experience is completely out of touch with what I as a client want from my telco and this decision will lead to me taking all of my telco services to another company because I rely heavily on voice to txt service.

I can't find an emojee that looks cranky enough to create a picture of how annoyed I am that this feature is being cancelled. It's crucial to our businesses workflow. Optus, please at the very least explain how cancelling this feature benefits your bottom line? I would have thought the infrastructure running the service to be extremely low end... So disappointed...

This is incredibly disapointing, cannot fathom how Optus can justify this (customer demand doesnt cut it, can you see a post on here that says "Yes, what a great idea"?). The voice to text is such a productive feature and to remove it is such a backwards step. Unfortuanetly it shows that Optus are not in touch with their clients, particually busines clients. We dont feel moving to MMS messages is an option for us, just seems a waste of time.

Really hoping Optus will listen to feedback and reverse the decision. We will now be shopping around to find an alternative supplier and be expecting Optus to release us from any contractual arrangements for our modest 10 mobile plans. The voice to text has been the primary reason for us using Optus.

Contacted Optus to findn out what my options are as I need it for my hearing impairment. I simply cannot hear the answering machine. Operator had no idea about this plan, telling me that it is likely to be spam? Why dont your operators know anything about it

I am total disgusted with Optus removing voice to text. If I had known that they was going to do this then I would not have move to Optus last year. As a consultant, I screen my messages if there is a urgent message from my clients but now I wont be able to do this after March. Whoever thought of this shows me that Optus do not care about their business customers. I do not have time for voicemail and this is similar to voicemail. Plus having the voice to text, I can go back to the message for reference in the future. Optus do not care about their business customers and I will be certain it telling clients, don’t move to Optus if you need the voice to text.

This is a backward step. Do not do it. My initial reaction was that it had to be a hoax and yet it's on your website. It is not always convenient to listen to a voicemail (or an audio file) which is why this is such a useful feature. Look at the feedback - 1 "kudo" for the original announcement, all comments so far are negative and each one has at least 1 "kudo". Re-think this decision and retain the feature. The NBN is nearly here, maybe it's a good time to compare telcos and revisit Telstra.

Thank you Optus. I now have as the result of your decision accepted your invitation to cancel after 8 months in a 2 years contract gone to Telstra paying 1/3 of what I paid with you with more data than what you were offering me on the old contract. Best of all. I’m now getting voice to text service!. Very wise move Optus!

This an extremely disappointing announcement. Voice to sms is an outstanding feature that saves me significant time every week. Voice to mms is not a suitable replacement as it does not safe anywhere near as much time. Surely it’s not expensive to run this feature. Please please restore this feature. No other telco does it so well currently with no limit on the length of the message (Telstra’s 10 seconds is terrible).

Unbelievable, only took 3 weeks for someone from Optus to reply and basically giving us a bad luck nothing you can do.This service has been vital to my business for 10 years. Without it voicemail is useless.

I want out of my lease, if I had known this was going to be cancelled I would not have renewed.